Goal: creating a new playable nation Tunesia based on an already existing nation to speed up things.

Step1: Copy BTW to work with and test
Step2: Make a folder to put all modified gsc files in
Step3: Extract all.gsc file in + extraction mode and copy all files from the extracted folder to a new folder within the GSC utility folder.
This step is just a precaution in case you change smth erroneously to the files and need to see the original again.
Step4: Trying to define what files will need changes. Reading http://cossacksworld.ucoz.co.uk/index/0-34 about previous test.

Going to use Algeria as the bases to build a new nation
So definetely these files:

Copy it to your workfolder
Rename it to TUNESIA.NDS
Open it.
Use Replace function in notepad and replace all (AL) to (TN). Saves you typing 200 times (TN)
Now manually change all the akademy references from
AKAXXAL to AKAXXTN ( where xx is the number) ( this will have to be done aswell in upglist.txt)

Finish up any remaining entries that influence the nations appearance
for example [COUNTRY] ( setting for editor)
but dont go and change the units or you will have a lot more work then needed, right now for speeding up we will use the same units to test
Save the file

next file:
units list ( this is not the same file as data+units list) ( told you to exctract all gsc as + mode)(otherwise use file renamer to rename)
copy, open
add:Tunesia 0

next file
Algir_bld.bmp
Copy, rename to Tunesia_bld.bmp

next file

Algeria.dll
copy rename Tunesia.dll

next file:

filelist.lst
here we will add all the new files that are not in the game yet:

TUNESIA.NDS

Time to see where we are

Put all files in to gsc utility and create mods.gs1

should have 19 files to process

Paste mods.gs1 in BTW test folder. Go to editor and check if the nation is present. Go to random map, check if the nation is present in the drop down list

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, kewl, loaded straight up, didnt show no errors, can select Tunesia in editor AND in Random Map
Didnt even look back to see if i made mistakes. Don't know what i forgot to do last time that it didnt work.

(...2 minutes later...)
Ok i cheered to soon. When I start playing debugger says that i have an invalid name for shahta(AL), obviously an entry i forgot to change.
Back to the upglist and nds files to clean up the remaining errors.

But the fact that the nation is present besides all other nations is a great improvement.

Time for a break

Well clearly I forgot a bunch of entries that refer to the upgrades in the NDS file. I suggest you change them all to (AL) or AL but also in the upglist aswell then

Still the same error appearing invalid upg shahta(AL) +5
If i ignore it runs trough the list up mine upgrades that cause errors

Ok so the shahta upg issue is solved ,i forgot another entry

but now when i hit start to play with tunesia vs bavaria(ai) it starts loading and crashed to desktop with out any warning.
Did something wrong
Gotta think again.

There must be other files involved or i must have made an error in one of the entries.

Ok, some more information on this test:

When i go in to map editor, and place units for Tunesia and then go to Random Map/Designed, i can start playing. All buildings are accessible and all units work fine:

So the nation is present & playable .

Now why i get a ctd on starting up a random game(default) and not in designed, eludes me somewhat at the moment.

But it also means that the error cant be too big since the nation is present & playable

A wild shot in the dark but it might have to do something with placing the peasants on start up on the map.Though i have no clear idea of how to start tackling this problem.

If someone has an idea....

Update 15/04:

After some tests i narrowed the problem down. What I did was instead of in random map-starting with default options, i started with an army. It loaded fine and is playable:

So this must mean there is a problem with the initial start file.

Will do some more tests but this should be in the data+Start options, but there is no data+Start0 which would be the default, because the data+Start1 is the second option in the menu ( army)

So where is this file located?

I guess a workaround is possible by deleting the default @@@RMID option in the txt file and rewrite all data+Starts but hey thats to much work for something that really should be there in the first place.

Update:

So another test under debugger gives me following message: Unable to assign Peasant ID.

Which proves that it has something to do with the starting settings for peasants as describe above.

Update:

Thanks to [BOB]Grandline we found a solution that was rather surprising. Copied the data+start4 and renamed it data+start0 . Works like a charm except as expected (!) to start with aop under default, it started with default.(lol)

I'll update soon the above text so that any remaining errors are deleted.

Finally a working new nation offline.

Update:

After doing some more tests we finally were succesfull in making the new nation work online aswell :

First there was an issue with the nations not appearing properly. This was solved by using the same ai.dat file in main directory for both users. ( Dont think here to deep , its where i made a mistake, by thinkin that the ai.dat cant have consequences for showing the list of nations in random online, it shouldn't , but it does...)

Another problem was that the game first crashed when i chose the color purple. We have not been able to recreate this problem and it has not occured anymore since.

All colors are playable on both sides. We have not done tests with more then 2 players, since we havent distributed the mini mod and it was only for testing purposes.

Now about changing the nations particularities (units, upgrades, building order,...) i refer to the anatomy of the files and previous tests.